(Click to enlarge image of Sarah Palin during happier, poorer times)
Weren't you just thinking the other day how this Sarah Palin's teenage daughter Bristol's pregnancy scandal was totally to September what John Edwards and Rielle Hunter's love-baby was to August?
Too bad, it's not. There is a so, so much salaciously better rumor about the former beauty queen and her sexcapades that is going down.
The National Enquirer wants any fans of the Edwards/Hunter and Palin scandals to please step forward, because do they have a scoop for you: CONTINUED »
John Edwards is having a rough month. There is still speculation that he is lying about not being the father of Rielle Hunter's baby, he was dis-invited to the current par-tay for the DNC in Denver this week, and now he can't even get a hold of his former friends and staffers to apologize.
The story plays out like Edward's staffers were the ones personally betrayed by the affair. The sounds of so many bad break-ups resound in this post like an echo-chamber of college relationships: CONTINUED »
David Perel, editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer, sung his victory song over at Huffington Post yesterday. And, well, he should: His John Edwards coup at the National Enquirer left the MSM hanging because of their hang-ups in writing up a scandal. (A liberal scandal, at that.)
Who would have thought, then, that it'd be the cynical bloggers rallying behind Perel. But it does make a twisted sort of logic — the Internet, filled with its salacious half-truths and Photoshopped celebrity obsessions, bears more of a resemblance to NE than more reputable publications.
So here's Perel getting smug: CONTINUED »
'John Edwards’ ex-lover, Rielle Hunter, may have been sold out again — by one of her sisters! Somehow, the National Enquirer has managed to produce a new, very clear picture of Hunter with baby daughter Frances Quinn. The picture could not be better. So the question is, how did the supermarket tabloid get it? The answer is, it was taken by one of Hunter’s two sisters, either Roxanne or Melissa. Roxanne, who lives in North Carolina, already has been identified as a source for previous Enquirer stories. She and Rielle had not spoken for 15 years prior to the Edwards scandal. Melissa, on the other hand, has so far been regarded as the loyal sister, who would never sell out Rielle for money. Nevertheless, one of them took the picture and e-mailed it to the other. It’s now on the cover of the Enquirer, presumably without Rielle’s blessing.' [Fox 411]
A funny thing happened on the way to ruining John Edwards reputation: The National Enquirer graduated from slippery checkout aisle gossip trash into a bonafide news source. Sure, the rag has broken legitimate news before — O.J. Simpson, and just recently, Patrick Swayze — but only since its John Edwards coup, where it forced the ex-senator and VP possibility into admitting an affair, has it attracted the respect of the mainstream media. Okay, maybe not respect, but at least the attention. CONTINUED »
Because average Americans can't be trusted to form their own opinions, Us Weekly trotted out a polygraph expert to explain how John Edwards may not have been completely honest during last week's Nightline interview regarding his affair with Rielle Hunter. Gee, you think?
Sharon Waxman, who is about to start her own Hollywood gossip enterprise, on why the John Edwards scandal still has any secrets left to be told: "My guess is that there is a simple reason why the mainstream media is unable to confirm the Edwards-Hunter affair during these past weeks. Because very few people knew what had been going on. Edwards’ staff didn’t know. Elizabeth Edwards didn’t know. The group may have been as small as three: Edwards, Hunter and her pal Bob McGovern." There's that, and also: "These past weeks,' nobody but the National Enquirer has been asking these questions. And you know what happens when some other folks do start asking questions? This little thing called answers. Strike two, Waxman.
National Enquirer exec editor Barry Levine: 'We have exclusive photographic evidence, pictures, videos, hard proof to further incriminate Edwards. He doesn't at this point know what we have, which is why I'm asking that we don't reveal too much yet. And which we will use unless and until he acknowledges paternity. [...] Although Edwards has this loyalist Andrew Young trying to claim it's really his baby in order to take the heat off Edwards, we know that's false. Young brought his wife and children to visit this lady Rielle Hunter. Now, nobody brings his wife and kids to have a nice social meeting with his mistress. It's ridiculous. [...] We're in this for the long haul. We're sitting on very exclusive material. Like a reporter monitoring a room they were in from 9:45 p.m. to 2:45 a.m. We had the big OJ stories, we broke the Jesse Jackson lovechild story, we unearthed the Clinton girlfriend stories. We'll stay on this one forever.' [Cindy]
With 32 reporters in Beijing covering the Olympics, it's nice to see the New York Times could afford two to the John Edwards scandal. And look what they turned up: a front page-worthy story that shows Edwards' camp might have been involved in lying to the press about Rielle Hunter! Though everybody but the National Enquirer was ignoring them at the time, two lawyers issued separate statements denying the scenario: Hunter's attorney said his client wasn't carrying Edwards' child, and former campaign aide Andrew Young's attorney said he was the father of the child. Now, it seems these two attorneys might have a connection that all ties back to Edwards, with money strewn along the way. Hey, this is what happens when you decide to investigate, isn't it? CONTINUED »
Rielle Hunter had sex with John Edwards. But is that all you'll let her be forever and ever — Edwards' mistress? The woman has done other successful things with her life! She was in the movie Overboard! And, because .gif files are the classiest of file attachments, there's even a commemorative animated photo of Hunter's on-screen appearance. Taking a cue from Highlights magazine, after the jump we've hidden the real Hunter amidst impostors. Guess which is she: CONTINUED »
John Edward's mistress is quickly becoming the most bankable bit on the side since Marilyn Monroe. Seriously, Ashley Dupree ain't got nothin' on Rielle Hunter, aka Allison Poole from American Psycho, aka Lisa Hunter: movie star. Whoops Lisa, your acting career reached its apex as an extra in a bad Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russel movie in the 80s. How's that for egg on your face?
CONTINUED »
Sometimes we connect dots just for the sake of seeing how many lines we'll need. It's like Soduku, for the weary. So we took two of the biggest items from the news cycle right now — Rielle Hunter and her maybe-love-child with John Edwards, and Ben Stiller's sort-of-offensive-but-really-just-whatever film coming out this weekend, Tropic Thunder — and rigamarolled a game of Six Four Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Without Mr. Bacon. It involves two of the 80s biggest coked-out yuppie nihilist writers (pictured left), and it's fun for the whole family once the kids are put to bed!
CONTINUED »
CBS News SVP Paul Friedman says he didn't report on the John Edwards scandal because the network "saw no reason to make his life or the life of his family any worse, until it became well-documented or he admitted it, which is what happened today." Uh huh. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz says he " came to believe that we should publish a story. But I don't get paid to make those decisions." Riiight. And Politico's Michael Calderone insisted there was no coverage in his space because "it was decided that writing on the rumors — without confirming them — simply validates the Enquirer," which, it's been shown, got much (if not all) of the story right.
But you know who also claims to have had the story about Edwards' affair but opted out of reporting on it? A one Bill O'Reilly, who, like Friedman, was doing the kind thing and not making Elizabeth Edwards' life miserable! Instead, O'Reilly just smeared Edwards as a shitty senator. "And that is the true story," he said last night. "The Factor painted an accurate picture of John Edwards without harming his family." Now, is that "accurate" with one "in-" or two?
'Friday night's exclusive "Nightline" interview with former presidential candidate John Edwards, which rocked the media landscape earlier in the day, did little to boost the news program's ratings, although it was able to hold its audience against the Olympics opening ceremony on NBC. Friday's "Nightline" averaged a 2.6 household rating in the preliminary local people meter markets measured by Nielsen Media Research. That was on par with the previous week's household ratings. Also on par was the show's 1.2 rating in adults 25-54. But that in itself isn't a loss as "Nightline" managed to hold its own against the NBC Olympics juggernaut, not losing much in the way of audience as other shows did.' [THR]
"The first time I laid eyes on Rielle Hunter, I could tell she was a story," insists Newsweek's Jonathan Darman, who, to be fair, did publish a "short story about how Edwards had brought this rather unorthodox woman, whom he'd met in a bar, into his campaign to make videos that showed off his unseen side" in the magazine's Periscope section way back when. But Darman doesn't get through the first graph of his post-John Edwards scandal reflection without saying this: "Edwards now admits that he had an extramarital affair with her. But at the time I had no reason to suspect there was anything between them." In hindsight, Darman may claim he knew Hunter was a story — just not what type of story.
And that's pretty much what every other media onlooker is going to claim, — you know, now that they've given themselves permission to address the issue. CONTINUED »
So, have you guys had enough of John Edwards and his his crazy-hippie-blogger mistress, Rielle Hunter yet? No? Us either. Sorry Edwards, it's news, and it has been news since National Enquirer broke the story in December, despite no major media outlet touching the story before Friday.
But now the floodgates are opened and we are allowed to treat this story for what it really is: gossip about a politician's illicit sex scandals. So with that in mind, who wants to watch the web videos Hunter made for Edward's 2004 VP campaign?!
Rielle Hunter, the confirmed mistress of John Edwards and lunatic web publisher, did not father the ex-senator's love child, if you're to believe his interview last night with ABC News (video). But Edwards is willing to take a paternity test, if only Hunter will participate, and share the results with the media. Know what? Hunter's sister Melissa thinks it'd be a good idea that Edwards take that test, which is a signal that at least part of the Hunter camp thinks — and is willing to say so publicly — Edwards is the father. (Worth nothing: Last month Extra reported that Hunter denied the Enquirer's allegations. Then again, Edwards was doing that up until two weeks ago.)
Edwards blames the whole thing on "narcissism" and on feeling "invincible." CONTINUED »
Despite someone trying their damnedest to keep confirmed homewrecker Rielle Hunter's website out of the public eye, it was really only a matter of time before the proof of this woman's weirdness surfaced. Entitled "Being Is Free," Hunter's site is chock-full of New Age-isms and talk of the zodiac, chakras, and spiritual healers, none of which granted Hunter enough serenity to resist the temptation of a married man with a dying wife. And while the site is offline, we got a look at the whole mess of it. CONTINUED »
And so he's done it: With less than two weeks before the DNC convention (aka D-Day), John Edwards has come clean, at least a little bit, about his extramarital relations with former webmaster Rielle Hunter — though he insists he's not the father of Frances Quinn, Hunter's new daughter.
In an interview with Bob Woodruff on tonight's Nightline, Edwards will admit he cheated on wife Elizabeth in 2006, which was after her cancer went into remission, but because of the timeline of when his affair ended and when Frances was born, he's certain he's not the dad, even without taking a paternity test.
Meanwhile, as recently as two weeks ago, when Edwards was answering reporters' questions about the scandal, he denied an affair ever took place. Liar.
So where does that leave us? Still with former campaign aide Andrew Young (a married father himself) claiming he's the father of Rielle's baby. Which means Edwards may not be the girl's daddy, but that Rielle was basically a groupie that got passed around the Edwards presidential campaign.
So, maybe now the Los Angeles Times and its media colleagues will find a reason to get on the story? Actually, why bother. Edwards breaks the news on a Friday night, and, for that matter, on the day the most-watched bi-annual sporting event is to kick off. Why not just let this revelation get lost in the weekend news cycle?
Editorial Director
